Deutsche Post sale of Postbank would require changing German constitution

Deutsche Post World Net AG.’s possible sale of Deutsche Postbank AG. may face legal hurdles as it would require amending the constitution, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported, citing a letter sent to German finance minister Peer Steinbrueck by trade union DPV.

According to a law in the German Basic Constitutional Law related to the privatisation of German mail services in the 1990s, civil servants working in companies succeeding former state-owned Deutsche Bundespost must remain employed there.

Some 35 percent of Postbank’s current staff are civil servants entitled to wages according to government pay scales and a pension.

‘It will (be) irreconcilable with Constitutional Law if Postbank is sold and becomes part of another bank’, unless the buyer sets up structures similar to government agencies to accommodate civil servants, the union said in the letter.

DPV demanded that plans to sell Postbank be dropped to preserve jobs and Postbank’s branches.

Germany’s Basic Constitutional Law has been changed 52 times since it came into effect in 1949, including the amendment that in 1994 set the legal basis for the privatisation of the Bundespost, which was split into what are today Deutsche Telekom AG.

Deutsche Post is currently examining all future options for Postbank, in which it holds 50 percent plus one share.

Several banks and financial services providers, including Deutsche Bank AG., Commerzbank AG. and insurance giant Allianz SE. have recently signaled an interest in acquiring Postbank.